Key Events

Youth Justice Plan supported

Councillors vote unanimously in favour of the Youth Justice Plan and the recommendation is passed.

21:28

The recommendation

That Council agrees that;

2.1 The Youth Justice Plan fulfils the requirements of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 and can be submitted to the Youth Justice Board for England and Wales.

2.2 The Youth Justice Plan is adopted as part of the Council’s Policy and Budget Framework and can be accommodated within the Council budget.

2.3 The relevant Policy Development and Scrutiny Panel oversees progress and performance.

21:24

ITEM 11: Youth Justice Plan 2017-18

The Local Authority has a statutory duty, in consultation with key partner agencies Health, Police and Probation, to produce an annual Youth Justice Plan. The Plan sets out how youth justice services are to be composed and funded, how they will operate and what functions they will carry out to prevent youth offending and re-offending across Bath and North East Somerset

The motion put to vote

Councillors debating the recommendation

The councillors are currently debating the recommendation regarding the Placemaking Plan Inspector’s Report.

20:56

The motion

That the council:

Accepts the Main Modifications listed, which the Inspector considers are needed to make the Plan sound in accordance with section 20 (5) of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 (as amended);

Agrees the Minor Modifications listed to the B&NES Placemaking Plan, which are needed to ensure clarity, consistency and factual accuracy in the Plan; Page 45 Agenda Item 10 Printed on recycled paper

Adopts the B&NES Placemaking Plan (Local Plan Part 2) as modified in (a) and (b) above, including for the purposes of section 38(6) of the Planning & Compulsory Purchase Act;

Agrees the B&NES Policies Map is amended in line with (a) and (b) above;

Acknowledges that the adopted Supplementary Planning Documents/Guidance listed in attachment 3 should supplement the B&NES Development Plan;

Delegates responsibility to the Divisional Director for Development, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Homes & Planning, to make minor textual amendments to the Placemaking Plan prior to publication

20:52

Move to the item

The Inspector has completed her examination of the B&NES Placemaking Plan and has concluded that the submitted Placemaking Plan can be made sound, subject to a schedule of ‘main modifications’.

The Council now needs to consider and decide whether it accepts the Inspector’s recommendations thereby enabling it to formally adopt the Placemaking Plan. If the Council does not accept all of the Inspectors’ recommendations, then it cannot adopt the Placemaking Plan.

20:49

Mr Kerr continues...

On transport:

The Placemaking Plan calls for a city centre free of all but essential traffic, which is great, but do you have any intention of doing this? What is the point of it all, if the council doesn’t actually implement its policies - for example, the core strategy policy is to have a car-free city centre, so why isn’t there yet any plan to reduce the traffic?

20:46KEY EVENT

ITEM 10: Placemaking Plan

Chairman of the Federation of Bath Residents’ Association Robin Kerr now speaking.

Housing, particularly affordable housing, is in crisis here, and student housing forms a large part of that problem, particularly as our universities refuse to offer campus accommodation to more than a fifth of their students... For years we have been pressing our council to take it seriously and introduce a student housing policy, but to no avail. Meanwhile, the problem gets worse.

20:37

Leader Tim Warren

The council leader Tim Warren says he’ll be happy to take the issue up with the West of England Combined Authority.

20:36

The motion voted through

The motion below is supported by voters and the amendment is carried.

20:32

Cllr Patterson

Allowed to sum up, Cllr Patterson says her people are “suffering now” and asks the council to give interim funding to the bus service in the hope that the West of England Combined Authority can do something.

20:30

Amendment to motion

The council motion is:

To note the concerns of petitioners in respect of recent changes to the 6/7 bus service following a review of bus services in Bath undertaken by First Bus.

To note that the Bus Service Act gives more tools to local transport authorities, particularly Mayoral Combined Authorities, to engage with bus operators to improve bus services, including options such as enhances partnerships, advanced ticketing, and franchising arrangements;

To note that the West of England Combined Authority will be conducting a network-wide review of the local bus network to make recommendations on if and where any changes are needed to deliver better network for the passenger and meet the transport and economic objectives of the West of England;

Councillor Rob Appleyard adds an amendment that reads:

To ask that, through the Leader, the West of England Combined Authority is strongly requested to examine how services between Fairfield Park and Larkhall can be restored without detriment to the improved service now provided to Camden and improved reliability and rider numbersas part of its wider review of bus service provision throughout the West of England.

20:17

"Local shops suffering"

Cllr Patterson says the local shops are suffering and the viability of the community is at stake.

We call on B&NES Council to reinstate the funding and reverse the cut to the route of the 6 and 7 bus serving Larkhall and Fairfield Park.

She has now gone over her five minutes of allotted time and is being told to wrap it up.

20:13

Councillor Lin Patterson presents petition

She says there are hundreds of residents who rely on the 6/7 bus after the bus route, which is operated by First Bus, was cut when the annual £39,900 subsidiary was withdrawn by the council.

According to Cllr Patterson, Fairfield Park residents must now get two buses, drive or walk to the nearest shops.

Pat Mason continued...

The 2,400 signatures were collected over a few weeks last Autumn from forms distributed to local shops and businesses in Larkhall and the London Road, and on a few bus journeys.

She goes on to say that there is significant “strength of feeling” and support for the old bus route.

We hope the council will reconsider all the information available and realise that our bus subsidy is necessary to provide an essential front-line social service which also affects our local economy.

20:06

Pat Mason from Save Our Bus campaign

I’m here to speak about the petition of the Save Our 6-7 Bus campaign, which was organised in response to the withdrawal of the subsidy. The council debate has been long postponed owing to four election. However, the daily misery for our community continued.

20:04KEY EVENT

ITEM 9: Save our 6/7 bus petition

We call on B&NES to reinstate the funding and reverse the cut to the route of the 6 and 7 bus serving Larkhall and Fairfield Park. The removal of a regular connection between Larkhall and Fairfield Park has damaging impact on the community. Without this link or any access to the London Road and Walcot, local people, especially the elderly and those without a car, have no effective way of getting to these destinations without an unnecessarily long trip...

20:00

Vote on Labour amendment

One against, so the amendment is carried.

19:52

Labour amendment

Labour Group now move their own amendment. Councillor Joe Rayment asks:

This council notes:

That a new Government Working Group has been created to examine the employment practices of companies like Uber;

That the Transport Minister has said that local authorities may be unaware of the extent of their powers and their ability to use them and that there are problems with different local authorities interpreting their powers in different ways; and

That the guidance and advice given to local authorities by Government is to be clarified.

Council resolves:

4. To remit to Licensing Committee to consider a further report on this issue in light of any new advice referred above.

19:52

Vote on amendment

Vote on amendment: 17 in favour, 34 against and 5 abstentions. The amendment is lost.

19:46

Uber amendment debated

Cllr Veal does not accept the amendment and it is now being debated.

19:42

No grounds to revoke

Cllr Veal says Uber is acting lawfully and asks the council to note the contents of this report.

An amendment is put forward (BOLD):

The council is asked to note:

2.1 the contents of this report;

2.2 That the council has previously delegated authority to the Licensing Committee to carry out all of the council’s licensing functions and that therefore the report should be referred to the Licensing Committe to carry out a thorough investigation into Uber operations.

2.3 A thorough investigation and review has been completed and there are no grounds to revoke Uber’s Private Hire Operator’s (PHO) licence. Any further issues should be dealt with through the council’s Licensing Sub Committee.

19:30

Uber issue continued

One of the issues in contention was whether Uber were using local taxi drivers or non-Bath residents.

The probe found there are no laws requiring any private hire vehicle to either start a journey within its home licensing authority or return there at the end of a job. It reads:

Uber inform their drivers that they are able to work legally anywhere where the Uber app is launched - which is correct. Uber encourage licensees from other licensing authorities to work in an area where they know there to be a demand for their vehicles. Whilst this may be considered undesirable by local taxi drivers it is not illegal.

19:29KEY EVENT

ITEM 8: Uber taxi licence

Councillor Martin Veal thanks all the speakers for talking on Uber.

He highlights why the report on Uber in Bath was carried out, after four city taxi drivers at a council meeting in March raised their concerns about how the app-based company was operating. It led to Councillor Caroline Roberts (Newbridge, Liberal Dems) proposing a review into how Uber’s licence was awarded and its impact on local private hire services.

Andrew Mercer on behalf of Bathampton Meadows Alliance

He says Bathampton Meadows Alliance does not consider the job to be over after the council scrapped the plans for a park and ride on either Bathampton Meadows or New Leaf Farm earlier this week.

The BMA’s job is not over we want to protect the meadows for perpetuity.

Asks the council to work with the group to achieve this end.

Bathampton Meadows

19:19

30mph outside schools

Adam Reynolds now speaking about the speed limits that will be implemented on new road infrastructure at the Ensleigh North Development up on Lansdown in Bath. A new residential area with a new school. Wants new cabinet member fo transport Cllr Mark Shelford to:

Recognise that the council’s 20mph report is flawed and should not be acted upoin and to await the national report due by the end of the year.

Recognise the will of the people of Bath. They chose to have 20mph zoning in 2011 and without consulting them again, this should be the defacto standared for all new residential developments.

Recognise that Traffic Regulation Order Team presented an option to Cllr Clarke that went against the established 20mph residential zoning requirement. Officers should be strong enough to go against the political ideology of the cabinet member for transport IF this goes against current policy.

Earlier bus protest

Halliday continues

He wants to free up the community room for hire for events and returning it to its proper purpose.

Many key events in the city have been held elsewhere due to the room remaining shut, and despite appeals to consider alterantives stores to date, nothing has happened... Reopening our room with positive marketing to promote its existence, and all it has to offer, would be a great step forward in re-building good community spirit. Please will somebody start this initiative, and instead of reasons for not doing anything, can we please address the positiveness of the solution, rather than creating obstacles.

19:03

Andy Halliday on libraries

Next speaker Andy Halliday is the former manager of Bath Central Library.

Starts by showing a “CLOSED” sign that has been hanging over the exhibition room for the last 8 months.

I plead for its reopening... I base this on the recent month’s activity to relocate all archive, some local studies reference and all manuscripts from their podium based store rooms and areas of the main floor to the Guildhall. I am asking for a serious review of these empty spaces happens with a deinite intention of moving reserve stock books currently housed in the exhibition room to these vacant spaces.